Kambia

The Great and Little Scarcies flow from the Futa Jalon highlands to the Atlantic coast of Sierra Leone. Their lower courses spread into tidal channels and mangrove swamps, where boats could reach communities upstream. Temne rulers controlled navigable stretches of the rivers, which formed part of the commercial world of the Upper Guinea coast. In the eighteenth century slave traders bought captives here for Atlantic voyages, alongside the exchanges that connected the river settlements with their neighbours.